James Gandolfini, an\u00a0actor\u00a0best known for his role as an anxiety-ridden mob boss on HBO’s “The Sopranos,” died Wednesday vacationing in Italy at age 51.\u00a0 The cause is still unknown but a heart attack is the likely cause.<\/p>\n
I was saddened to hear about this when I clicked on CNN yesterday.\u00a0 I also had a strong encounter with the fear of the Lord as I was just writing about the Jimmy Hoffa search yesterday and already had some mob\/mafia thoughts swimming about.\u00a0\u00a0 I need to back up before I begin this.\u00a0 My intention here is not to give\u00a0here an\u00a0I told you so sort of message nor state I know exactly what message God is trying to send with his sudden death.\u00a0 There are times when God is trying to wake up a people and wake up\u00a0our nation, and he sends storms and all kinds of chaos our way.\u00a0 Many times Hollywood stars and rock musicians reach untimely deaths in often shocking ways\u00a0and ultimately God himself determined when and how they would die.\u00a0 He provides some general principles in the word of God that the fear of the Lord prolongeth days.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From his lifestyle and lack of clear Christian testimony James is in hell right now.\u00a0 That is sad, that is tragic. We need to live life realizing we can die at any moment and 500 years from now it will only matter where we are and if we are saved, who we brought with us.<\/p>\n
What I want to focus on though is the Sopranos theology of sorts is a good representation of where America is at.\u00a0 It is why there is little hunger and thirst for righteousness and why most of America thinks it is saved and right with God.\u00a0 I was lost when the Sopranos first aired, and my natural desires were for what this world offered.\u00a0 I was a big fan of the show and I think it was 2 or 3 full seasons I “enjoyed” and then I met Jesus Christ and after that could no longer enjoy the pleasures of sin.\u00a0 God changed my desires, my direction, and my destiny from March 2002 on.\u00a0\u00a0 My post here is mostly some observations I can see with the Sopranos morality and situation ethics and the rest of America.<\/p>\n
Basically the story of the Sopranos was this.\u00a0 Tony Soprano was a mob boss.\u00a0 He murdered people, he beat up people, he had a mistress, he swore, he hung around with some evil people.\u00a0 Yet the show is about his “normal” family life, raising 2 children if I remember correctly, and normal happy married life.\u00a0\u00a0 It shows his double lives perfectly balanced, and the image portrayed is he is still a decent family guy.\u00a0 Despite the bad things that he does, he still is a great contributor to society.<\/p>\n
He explained the mob life to his psychiatrist by saying, “We’re soldiers. Soldiers don’t go to hell. It’s war. Soldiers kill other soldiers. We’re in a situation where everyone involved knows the stakes and if you are going to accept those stakes, you’ve got to do certain things. It’s business.”<\/p>\n
What I see in all this is the situational ethics that now shape America.\u00a0 Instead of THOU SHALT NOT we have adopted certain “codes” and “stakes” and as long as those rules get obeyed we are ok with God and each other (in our view).\u00a0 God is clear.\u00a0 He says He does not change.\u00a0 What was sin 200 years ago is still sin today.\u00a0 However, we have this new view of sin.\u00a0 Fornication is sin according to the Bible.\u00a0 In America today, fornication is normalized and it is perfectly acceptable if you follow the new rules.\u00a0 Use a condom unless you have been dating for 3 months.\u00a0 It is ok to live together and if you get pregnant, you should at least get engaged before the baby comes.\u00a0 When you ask a girl to become your girlfriend, you are a good guy if you are only sleeping\u00a0\u00a0with her.\u00a0 The rules keep changing, but the main point is we have done what the Bible said— we have established our own righteousness.<\/p>\n
For example, Tony Soprano and the other mafia men had some strong rules they lived by.\u00a0 You could be a faithful husband even if you had a mistress because you provided for your wife, she was the mother of your children, and you only wanted the mistress for selfish sexual fulfillment.\u00a0 You killed people who deserved it.\u00a0 You never ratted out your friends.\u00a0 When I was lost and watching this, I thought the Mafia guys were good guys.\u00a0 We would watch movies like Good Fellas and when the “good bad guys” got “whacked” we would be sad.<\/p>\n
I think these represent America well.\u00a0 The lines of good and bad are no longer clearly drawn.\u00a0 Tony would go to mass on Sunday and just murdered a guy on Saturday.\u00a0 Back to family life on Monday.\u00a0 Nothing is that wicked because he could justify every action and he lived within their own created code of living.\u00a0 It wasn’t the 10 commandments, it wasn’t to please God, it was a life of doing what is right in their own eyes.\u00a0 It was a life of indulgences, a life of living a wicked lifestyle in the eyes of God\u00a0but when presented to the eyes of man now we could think, “ahh, that is why they do what they do.\u00a0 Tony Soprano is one of the good guys!”\u00a0 And we root for him to pull through.<\/p>\n
The bible condemns those that justify the wicked.\u00a0 God divides us all not into good and bad but lost and saved.\u00a0 America’s morality is a Sopranos mentality.\u00a0 All sin gloves are off because in most circumstances almost anything goes is the thought process.\u00a0 It is not a drunkard, he is a party animal.\u00a0 It is not fornication, it is high school sweethearts.\u00a0 It is not\u00a0 abortion, it is freedom of choice.\u00a0 And on and on.<\/p>\n
God is not impressed with our repackage of sin. However, God is not unreasonable.\u00a0 He is not there to cancel a party or put out fires for no reason.\u00a0 He is not this mean jerk who is better than you so he is going to kick sand in your face as he sees you stuck in sand.\u00a0 Religion is the Soprano way.\u00a0 Do as you please, kill murder and steal, and add some religion and church and that will pay for your offenses and get God off your back. It doesn’t work like that.\u00a0 But God is not willing that any should perish.\u00a0 Sin really enslaves us and sin is what puts us in hell.\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus is waiting with open arms, and sin is a backpack of explosives we are carrying and we want to run to Jesus and not let go of what is going to destroy us.\u00a0 It is not quit drinking and I will accept you.\u00a0 It is not come to Jesus and keep drinking.\u00a0\u00a0 It is this.\u00a0\u00a0 COME TO JESUS.\u00a0 Come knowing your sin is wicked and knowing that your sin will damn you to hell.\u00a0 But Come knowing that God loves you in spite of your sin, and that God will change you from the moment you come.\u00a0 Expect your sin to be dealt with and delivered and that the desires will change but know God is not impressed with you cleaning it up.\u00a0\u00a0 You can’t.\u00a0 You can’t save yourself, you can’t pay for your sin, you can’t even want to leave sin because that is our desire until we get saved.<\/p>\n
The Sopranos appeal is this.\u00a0 You can have religion and keep your sin.\u00a0 And your sin is really ok because you sin but you obey the rules your sins give.\u00a0 It is ok to have 4 drinks during happy hour but only 2 during the week.\u00a0 You can’t live together until you have been together at least a year.\u00a0 Whatever.<\/p>\n
True salvation is a completely different thing all\u00a0together.\u00a0 It is not living 2 lives\u00a0where 1 makes up for the\u00a0other.\u00a0 That is really what religion does.\u00a0 You may not be involved with the mafia, but you do your own version of the double life thing if you are lost.<\/p>\n
America likes the Tony Soprano way.\u00a0 If it ever embraces the Jesus Christ way instead, that would turn America around overnight.\u00a0 And\u00a0America’s night life would never be the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
James Gandolfini, an\u00a0actor\u00a0best known for his role as an anxiety-ridden mob boss on HBO’s “The Sopranos,” died Wednesday vacationing in Italy at age 51.\u00a0 The cause is still unknown but a heart attack is the likely cause. I was saddened … Continue reading